½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Hiiiiiiii, today I want to share with everybody "colourfully – clotheed hilltribes in Lao Cai Province.
Sapa is famous destination, very captivating mix of dramatic mountainscapes, fresh air and colourfully – clotheed hilltribes. This was a very beautiful place to go.
Cuture  “colourfully – clotheed hilltribes”
Many ethnic minorities live in and around Sapa: HÂ’ mong,  Dao, Muong, Thai, Hoa, Giay, Tay, Xa Pho. Each group each group is distinguished buy its own dress, language and culture:
-    Tay:  The Tay are the earliest knowm minority in Vietnam, they settled in valleys in the North West part of Sapa, you can visit the Tay minority in Ban Ho, Thanh Phu village.
Their alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet devised 1960, similar to the Viet alphabet.
The traditional dress is made from indigo dyed cotton. It is usually plain, with little embroidery or other decoration. The women wear a simple shirt with silver buttons down the front teamed with black trousers. Both sexes wear colorful head scarves.
Their houses built on stilts originally designed to protect them from wild animals. When building a new house,  choose the right placer is very important with them.
-    Dao:  their writing is base on Chinese characters. Women usually wear a long blouse over trousers.  Their clothers are colourfully embroidered with designs that appear on both sides of the material. The men typically wear a short shirt with long trousers, andd a head-scarf. Both men and women have a square piece of fabric on the back of their shirts which represents that they are children of God. They wear similar-long on top with the rest smoothly shaved.  Women also wear a distinctive red triangular shaped turban decorate with silver coins and red tassels.
-    Hmong: The Black Hmong immigrated from China, and you meet them in Supan, Y Linh Ho, Lao Chai, Cat Cat village.
Women are famous for making cloth from hemp and dying it a deep indigo blue. They wear long blouses decorated with batik flowers over short trousers, and wrap long scarves around their legs. They wrap their long hair around their head and wear a blue turban. The men wear long jackets with shirts and a long waist coat embroidered at the collar and s small hat

LANSCAPE IN SAPA
Sapa have natural sighseeing sports like: silver waterfall, Hamrong Mountain, Fansipan Mountain, Bamboo forest, Rattan Bidge, Taphin cave attract lot of tourists.
-    Ham Rong Mountain is one of the most famous tourist destination, anyone who comes to this Sapa spends at least half a day to visit this interesting place. This place likea miniature Sapa, you can to watch the panorama of Sapa town from the peak of Ham Rong Mountain. Hamrong also is kingdom of coloful flowers.
-    Sapa ancient rock field is located in Muong Hoa Valley. This field consists of 196 stones of various dimensions concentrated in the area, which was carved with many strange shapes by ancient people thousands of years ago. Now, this area is keeping secrets in itself that archaeolosist and scientists have not deciphered it yet.
-    The  terraced rice fields in Sapa look like a picture of nature with heart-catching beauty keeping tourist to stay for admiration for a white. This picture however has its colour changed seasonally. When the local people water fields at full to prepare for a new crop (usually in april and may, the surface of terracted fields shines like a mirror reflecting the contrast of the reddish brown of soil, the deep blue of sky high above and the green of surrounding forest. In June and July, the terracced rice fields with fully-grown paddy rice from the foot to top of moutains before desappering in mist. And in Sep and Oct when autumn ends, the terraced rice fields look like golden silk scarves flying over in the wind over in the wind above green mountain slopes, making the mountains landscape astonishingly beautiful.
Â…Â….

Mary, we went to Sapa about six years ago in the month of November with some ten Mekong Delta people (wife's family). They had been to Hanoi before, and seen much there, so we decided to take them to Sapa. I had doubts about how they would like it. To my great surprise, they were fascinated with all the minority groups and even though the weather was cold they liked Sapa very much. We also stayed in Lao Cai one night. They had wanted to cross the border to China, just to say they'd been there, but since our Vietnamese visa was one entry only, we did not have the time and so they all opted not to go over for a day. Instead everyone took pictures of themselves standing at the 'entry' doorway, and exiting the 'exit' doorway at the border crossing building. They found it hard to believe that the Red River they saw entering Vietnam from China was the same Red River that produced the Red River delta.

Their favorite place in Lao Cai was the central market, where the Chinese electronics are far cheaper than they are in Can Tho (according to them. I have no idea.) Two of them bought Karaoke systems, but the rest just took lots of pictures, especially the Confucian temple just off from the crossing bridge, the kilometer marker overlooking the Red River, and the traffic sign with the kilometers from Lao Cai to eack major city in Vietnam.

So yes, Sapa is well worth a trip.

BAC HA is a town with very special Sunday markets, whilst the Coc Ly Market us held on Tuesdays.

One notable feature of staying in Bac Ha hotels are the corrugated irons roofs. Early each morning the Lao Cai Provonce speaker system lurches into action and the population is blasted with exercise routines and the news, as seen through Ha Noi's eyes.

Unfortunately, the speaker volume is very high and seems to generate vibrations in the corrugated roofing which adds considerably to the ambient noise.

Don't take a tour, a Vietnamese bus leaves Lao Cai town each morning. Ask your Lao Cai hotel how much the bus ride is - at least you know how much you should pay. Ask the price as you get on AND PAY IT THEN!

Also GET A RECEIPT! (Have the driver write on your notepad)

FOR THOSE WHO DON'T, the driver will likely rip-you off for higher fares in arrival. Be warned.